October 7th, England - One Year On
Winston Marshall
Oct 08, 2024
Few people have a talent for words sufficient to articulate the horror, tragedy and significance of the October 7th, 2023. Certainly not me. What I offer here are some observations on how that awful day marked England.
It is not just the Middle East and Israel that is forever changed, but the West. The date marks a turning point for Britain and for my home city London. Here, on the far-side of the European continent, the deep divisions that have been creaking and groaning for nearly three decades cleaved fully open.
It wasn’t gradually apparent either. It was immediate. Those of us on X (Twitter) saw the videos streaming in from the Israeli embassy in Kensington where kaffiyeh-garbed groups went to celebrate. “Allah Akbar!” they howled in jubilance. I dread to think of the nature of a God that takes delight in such evil. Flares of red. Flares of green. Hollering. Gloating. A day of glory for a portion of my fellow countrymen. At least I am told they are my fellow countrymen, and administratively I believe they probably are. This was October 8th.
On October 9th I joined a vigil on Whitehall. There, several hundred, maybe a couple thousand, mainly Jewish grievers sang hymns and mourned the slaughter of the 1200. That same night, as the Victoria Line screeched me home, I faced a reveller from the other side of town. There he stood in front of me on the tube carriage. Euphoric. Chest out. He was returning home from another night of celebrations. Celebrations that I witnessed on X. Wrapped in his clan’s tartan - the black and white hattah cloth with which we’ve grown accustomed to. The tribal-wear of Palestine. I wanted to confront him. To hit him. Israel had not even responded at this point. But I controlled myself. I held back tears.
I was back in Westminster the following weekend, off to speak at the Social Democrat Party conference. Parliament Square was heaving. Balaclavas, groups of eggy black-clad lads. Lebanon flags. Palestine flags. Eyes looking for fights. “Israel is a Terrorist State” they chanted. Israel and British Jews continued to grieve the horrendous terrorist attacks. This would be one of the first of at least twenty such marches through my city in the year to come.
Britain now has a significant demographic of people who see reality completely differently to those of us who are culturally British. Or, as far as I’m concerned, don’t see reality at all. A poll commissioned by the Henry Jackson Society has found that only one in four British Muslims believe Hamas committed murder and rape in Israel on October 7th. That means at least 3 million British muslims reject the video evidence and testimony released by Hamas themselves, as it paints Hamas in a light that does not agree with their worldview. That Hamas are the freedom-fighters. The goodies.
The political far-left have done their best to claim these regular marches are “pro-Palestine”. But having witnessed them myself it is evident they are not. They are explicitly anti-Israel. Take this weekend for example. Marking the year anniversary of October 7th protestors waved placards which read “We Will Not Abandon Palestine” in a silhouette of Hassan Nasrallah the recently killed terrorist leader of Hezbollah. There were many such signs…
The same up and down the country. Humza Yousaf, the former First Minister of Scotland gave a speech on this anniversary weekend decrying Israel. Not Hamas who started the war and could have ended it, not Hezbollah, not the Houthis, not Iran, not Qatar. Israel. His blind frothing vitriol impervious to the fact that at least 100 Israeli hostages are still in Hamas captivity or dead.These regular marches through our cities filled with unapologetic antisemitism have already inspired a backlash. The riots across England this summer were not unrelated.
How are we to make a nation of people with such fundamentally different grasps of reality? In the Middle East people are separated by borders, imperfect as they are. Here we live side by side. What is our common culture? What is it that unites the people of Britain? The answer is certainly not “diversity”.
Looking back I do see some hope. I see it in the spirit of Israel. I visited in January to tape interviews with Douglas Murray, Natan Sharansky, Eylon Levy and others. I found a nation hurting but united. Suffering but dignified. Young and old the nation had come together. With riots and protests across the world, here at the centre of the storm, it was eerily calm. And this was a nation divided before October 7th, lest we forget.
Netanyahu seems to be turning the tragedy of last year into military victory. Hamas and Hezbollah high command have been humiliated. Israel stands on the brink of tremendous advance. Once in a generation. Their enemies are the enemies of all the West. Yet the West appear to have forgotten as much.
Despite the rise in antisemitism in Britain I hope that British Jews know that it is specific minorities from which this hate rises, and that the majority of the country stands in solidarity with you.
Far away from the Gaza Envelope, England is not the same for October 7th. An ugly clarity has ascended. What can unite us again is yet to be seen. But I thank goodness for the example of the people of Israel.
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